Your author career will be enhanced when you write a series. You will gain a lot more benefits and become more effective in your marketing. Benefits to Your Writing When you write new novels for a series, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. In fact, you will be laying the foundation for the…

For mystery writers, the audience is your reader. One reader. The one who is reading your story right now. You can structure your plot, build strong characters, illustrate the settings, create imaginative twists, and hide the villain until the end. But you must also bring your reader into the story…

While many genres work best when the protagonist has an emotional arc, a mystery novel does not require an arc for the protagonist detective. In fact, in most detective mysteries, the protagonist has what is called a flat arc. Recently a new author in an online writing group was struggling…

A successful mystery novel keeps the reader guessing. As an author, you create a puzzle that doesn’t work until the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle fits in. That final piece is the reveal of the villain, the one who committed the crime, usually a murder. Between the discovery of…

At the beginning of your mystery story, along with wanting your reader to wonder, What will happen next? you want to get your reader to care about your sleuth. The emotional connection bonds your reader to your protagonist. …

You know you want your reader to connect with your protagonist sleuth. One of the best ways to make that connection is to paint a picture of how your protagonist responds to the world around them-the setting in the scene. Your protagonist may be in the midst of a big…

Your Best Writing Support You don’t need to go it alone as a writer. Other writers understand your process. While you may struggle to explain to friends, a spouse, relatives, or co-workers, other writers understand your struggles, help you through your shortcomings, refer editors and agents, a new way to approach character development, and…

Get Your Sleuth in Trouble Readers love conflict. It keeps them wondering how the story will turn out. What will the hero do next? How will she get out of this one? Good storytelling needs conflict. Conflict builds suspense by creating tension. For a reader, tension raises the question of what will happen next. That…

It’s not unusual to stall when writing your mystery novel. For most writers, that sag happens somewhere after the middle to about three-quarters through the story. Not only do setbacks happen to writers, but setbacks are also a normal part of the writing process. …